New Subsurface Temperature Recorder deployed at White Shoal in Dry Tortugas National Park
The NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) conducts the long-term National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) to track the status and trends of coral reef ecosystems of the U.S. Atlantic and Caribbean coral reef jurisdictions. This FY21 summary brief provides an overview of the most recent survey efforts.
Figure 1: Study sites and depths in Dry Tortugas National Park area
Three years of temperature measurements were retrieved and processed from all 4 sites (depths). Temperature was measured using SeaBird Electronics Subsurface Temperature Recorders (STR)s that collected data at 5-minute intervals.
Figure 2: Temperature conditions at four sites in the Dry Tortugas representing a depth gradient: Pulaski Shoal Lighthouse (1m) White Shoal (5m), Bird Key Reef (15m), and Black Coral Rock (25m). Data were collected from November 2018 to June 2021, with the exception of the 25m STR that recorded until February 7th 2020.
Temperature values were similar among the 1m, 5m and 15m depths with the lowest temperatures recorded during February 2021 (20.8, 20.7, and 19.9 \(^\circ\)C, respectively) and the the highest temperatures during the summer of 2019 and 2020 (31.7, 31.6, and 31.5 \(^\circ\)C, respectively). Though the 25m STR stopped recording on February 7, 2020, it detected consistent temperature stratification at this site during the summers when it was active. Temperatures at 25m were on average 5-6\(^\circ\)C lower during summer 2018, and 1\(^\circ\)C lower during summer 2019, compared with the values at other depths (Fig. 2).
At Bird Key Reef additional instruments were deployed for a 72-hour diurnal suite that monitored pH, temperature, light and current speed (Fig. 3). The SeaFET pH logger, EcoPAR and Tiltmeter collected measurements at 5-minute intervals.
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DO WE WANT TO TRIM THESE DATA?
WHAT IS THE TIME ZONE WE WANT HERE??
DO WE WANT TO TRIM THESE DATA?
## DateTime pH Temperature Temp.adj
## Min. :2022-09-05 09:15:00 Min. :7.916 Min. :29.04 Min. :7.916
## 1st Qu.:2022-09-06 03:33:45 1st Qu.:7.934 1st Qu.:29.32 1st Qu.:7.945
## Median :2022-09-06 21:52:30 Median :7.942 Median :29.34 Median :7.947
## Mean :2022-09-06 21:52:30 Mean :7.942 Mean :29.34 Mean :7.948
## 3rd Qu.:2022-09-07 16:11:15 3rd Qu.:7.950 3rd Qu.:29.38 3rd Qu.:7.951
## Max. :2022-09-08 10:30:00 Max. :7.968 Max. :29.47 Max. :7.961
Figure 3: Bird Key Reef (15m) diurnal suite monitoring from June 25th to 28th. Top panel: pH and temperature from SeaFET. Bottom panel: Photosynthetically Available Radiation (PAR) and current speed from EcoPAR and Tiltmeter. Grey blocks denote night time throughout sequence of the plot. Instruments measured parameters every 5 minutes.
As part of the diurnal suite, discrete water samples were collected at three-hour intervals (n=24) using Subsurface Automatic Samplers (SAS). These samples will be analyzed for Total Alkalinity (TA), Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC), and Spectrophotometric pH (SpecpH). Using these metrics we can get the calculated values for pCO2 and aragonite saturation state. For more information on SAS vist https://www.coral.noaa.gov/accrete/sas/
Submered Automated Samplers (SAS) deployed to collect water samples every 3 hours
summary(light)
## DateTime PAR sd
## Min. :2022-09-05 12:46:05 Min. : 0.0458 Min. : 0.00000
## 1st Qu.:2022-09-06 07:11:13 1st Qu.: 0.0458 1st Qu.: 0.00000
## Median :2022-09-07 01:49:57 Median : 4.7557 Median : 0.03359
## Mean :2022-09-07 01:49:56 Mean : 43.5774 Mean : 3.60508
## 3rd Qu.:2022-09-07 20:28:42 3rd Qu.: 59.9337 3rd Qu.: 0.48024
## Max. :2022-09-08 14:52:22 Max. :423.2122 Max. :142.00071
## NA's :1
summary(pH)
## DateTime pH Temperature Temp.adj
## Min. :2022-09-05 09:15:00 Min. :7.916 Min. :29.04 Min. :7.916
## 1st Qu.:2022-09-06 03:33:45 1st Qu.:7.934 1st Qu.:29.32 1st Qu.:7.945
## Median :2022-09-06 21:52:30 Median :7.942 Median :29.34 Median :7.947
## Mean :2022-09-06 21:52:30 Mean :7.942 Mean :29.34 Mean :7.948
## 3rd Qu.:2022-09-07 16:11:15 3rd Qu.:7.950 3rd Qu.:29.38 3rd Qu.:7.951
## Max. :2022-09-08 10:30:00 Max. :7.968 Max. :29.47 Max. :7.961
summary(current)
## date ws wd
## Min. :2022-09-05 13:15:00 Min. : 0.150 Min. : 1.28
## 1st Qu.:2022-09-06 07:33:45 1st Qu.: 1.570 1st Qu.:163.02
## Median :2022-09-07 01:52:30 Median : 2.240 Median :289.87
## Mean :2022-09-07 01:52:30 Mean : 2.687 Mean :240.63
## 3rd Qu.:2022-09-07 20:11:15 3rd Qu.: 3.345 3rd Qu.:312.29
## Max. :2022-09-08 14:30:00 Max. :11.130 Max. :359.18
## DateTime ws.adj
## Min. :2022-09-05 09:15:00 Min. : 5.704
## 1st Qu.:2022-09-06 03:33:45 1st Qu.: 59.698
## Median :2022-09-06 21:52:30 Median : 85.175
## Mean :2022-09-06 21:52:30 Mean :102.177
## 3rd Qu.:2022-09-07 16:11:15 3rd Qu.:127.192
## Max. :2022-09-08 10:30:00 Max. :423.212
CAU and BMU pair before retreval after being deployed for 3 years. CAUs are 2 parallel PVC plates to quantify settled accretors. BMU is mounted coral skeleton installed at the base of the metal stake and has been encrusted.
Scientist Nathan Formel collects images to create the orthorectified landscape mosaics
AOML’s climate monitoring is a key part of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), providing integrated, consistent, and comparable data across U.S. Managed coral reef ecosystems. CRCP monitoring efforts aim to:
Atlantic Climate team lead: nicole.besemer@noaa.gov
Principal Investigator: ian.enochs@noaa.gov
NCRMP Coordinator: erica.towle@noaa.gov
Coral Reef Conservation Program: http://coralreef.noaa.gov
NCRMP climate monitoring: https://www.coris.noaa.gov/monitoring/climate.html
NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/
These efforts were jointly funded by NOAA’s CRCP and OAP. We would like to thank the National Park Service and Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for permitting support and the ANGARI Foundation for field support.
Field team members: Graham Kolodziej, Nicole Besemer, Ana Palacio, Ian Enochs
Additional lab members involved with NCRMP: Benjamin Chomitz, Albert Boyd, Mike Jankulak,